JPA Health: 2022
JPA Health
1101 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036
202-591-4000 • [email protected] • jpa.com
QUICK FACTS
Accounts
Account wins 8
Active business clients 35
Brands by 2021 sales
Brand-product accounts held 12
Services Mix
Marketing 40%
Public relations 40%
Advocacy 20%
Client Roster
American Kidney Fund
Arvinas Pharmaceuticals
AstraZeneca
Brightside Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
College of American Pathologists
Community Catalysts
IDEXX
Intuitive
Medicines360
Merck
Nobelpharma
The Physicians Foundation
Sanofi
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
ViiV Healthcare
“Over the last year, JPA not only had to navigate the needs of our own employees during the ongoing pandemic, especially with the introduction of the Delta and Omicron variants, but our firm also had to balance the uncertainty and shifting needs of every single one of our clients,” leaders at this agency say. “From uncertainty in government guidance and local restrictions to hybrid conferences and annual client meetings, our employees rose to the challenge of providing strategic guidance and support to help clients quickly navigate changes.”
Recent Accomplishments
In response to these needs, JPA refined and built out its remote onboarding program to welcome all new employees to the agency, company management says. “Having gone through the initial impact of the pandemic and adjusting to it through additional employee resources and flexible schedules to accommodate parents and caregivers, the JPA teams were well poised to take on a new set of related but unique challenges in 2021.”
(top row left to right) Carrie Jones, principal; Diane Wass, managing director, London; Adam Pawluk, executive VP, life sciences, Washington, DC
(bottom row left to right) Ken Deutsch, head of research and insights, Boston; Michael Sloan, chief operating officer, Washington, DC; Linda Davis, senior director, human resources, Washington, DC
During 2021 JPA’s Washington, New York, and Boston offices implemented collaboration days, which cemented JPA’s hybrid model of working in the office two days each week and working remotely three days.
“This allowed JPA team members to build interpersonal relationships and supported team building and general comradery among JPAers,” the leadership team states. “Collaboration days served as a positive solution for JPA’s employees to overcome isolation and re-energize our culture.”
Each month during 2021, JPA additionally acknowledged staff birthdays through a virtual celebration, which included mailing every JPA employee a personal birthday cake to their home for them to enjoy on their birthday.
And to end the year on a high note, according to management, JPA reaffirmed its commitment to employee work-life balance and positive mental health promotion by implementing “JPA Unplugged,” an initiative that closed JPA’s offices during the last week of the year to give all employees a minimum of 10 days to “unplug” from technology and to focus on their own well-being.
Structure and Services
JPA is a full-service, integrated marcomm agency exclusively focused on health with three specific practice areas: life sciences, public health and international. “Within these areas, our specialties include advocacy relations, media relations, public affairs, brand marketing and health equity,” company management says. “Our in-house creative, digital and research teams, called JPA Labs, work in collaboration with account teams and are comprised of specialists in analytics, visual communication, social media, and web design.”
Company managers describe JPA’s GRETEL as an exclusive tool aimed at understanding how and with whom conversations happen across the health landscape. “This tool has been a fixture in nearly every campaign we have conducted because it brings together stakeholders, media outlets and influencers in health to show how they intersect. In 2021, we created real-time dashboards, a new offering to provide our clients with continuous access to language and audience data, as well as corresponding insights, from GRETEL. As part of our commitment to improving health equity, we conducted deep analyses on communities underserved by the health care system so we can enhance our staff and clients’ understanding,” JPA management says.
“Specifically, we identified areas of alignment and gaps in language between U.S. public health leaders and specific communities, including Black, Latinx/Hispanic and LGBTQ+ populations, to provide public health leaders language to consider that aligns with terminology used by specific populations.”
Future Plans
According to the agency’s leadership team, JPA is “keenly focused” on expanding its business offerings in the areas of medical affairs and financial communications within the health sector.
Philanthropy/Citizenship
Examples of JPA’s award-winning creative work as part of multiple integrated marketing and communications campaigns.
JPA is deeply committed to giving back to patients and healthcare professions, company management says. “Over the last year, we have provided significant pro-bono services to the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to reduce burnout of health care professionals and safeguard their well-being and job satisfaction.”
During March, President Joe Biden signed the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act (S. 610) into law. JPA executives say this first-of-its-kind legislation aims to prevent suicide and burnout among health care professionals and mitigate their mental and behavioral health conditions. The legislation additionally contains a provision for a comprehensive study aimed at understanding the factors contributing to burnout and the mental health conditions of health care professionals and barriers for their access to care, including stigma and concerns about licensing and credentialing.
The legislation is named after Dr. Breen, a New York City emergency room physician who died by suicide after treating confirmed COVID-19 patients, contracting the virus herself, and returning to an overwhelming work environment while fighting to care for patients.
“Even before COVID-19 hit, physicians had the highest death rate by suicide of any profession in the country,” JPA management states. “Now, nearly 60 percent report experiencing burnout, a surge that suggests worrisome trends for health care workers. A recent poll from the American College of Emergency Physicians found that 73 percent of emergency physicians said they were concerned about stigma if they sought mental health support, and 57 percent reported they would be concerned about losing their jobs if they sought mental health treatment.
